Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, is the first senior F1 figure to address the allegations against his Red Bull counterpart since they became public on 5 February. At a press conference in Bahrain on the first day of pre-season testing, Wolff was the only one of five team principals present willing to discuss the investigation and called for it to be aired in public as an issue that was important to the whole sport. The investigation into Horner was launched by Red Bull Racing’s parent company Red Bull GmbH after the complaint was submitted to them. He has not been suspended and is in Bahrain running his team at testing this week. The new Red Bull was a significant ­evolution of the 2023 model but hit the ground running.

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